Amie Kreppel

Coalition Formation in the European Parliament

This article analyzes coalition formation within the European Parliament (EP) under the cooperation procedure through the analysis of a random sample of 100 roll call votes. The authors find that generally, coalitions form on the basis of ideology, not nationality, although they are able to identify some national groups that occasionally vote against the majority of their party group. More interestingly, they find that the political initiative within the EP belongs to the Left and that the majorities required at different stages affect not only the outcomes of votes but also the coalitions that will form. Finally, a slight variation is found in coalition building depending on the subject matter. On the basis of these findings, the authors suggest an alternative interpretation of the conflicts between the Council and EP based on an ideological conflict about more (EP) or less (Council) regulation, as opposed to more or less integration.

Legislative Procedures in the European Union: An Empirical Analysis

The article analyses the role of the Commission, the Parliament, and the Council in the two main legislative procedures in the European Union: co-operation and co-decision (I). We use the legislative history of some 5,000 parliamentary amendments. These procedures have been the subject of a great deal of theoretical debate. According to conventional wisdom the co-decision procedure increases the powers of the European Parliament. Revisionist approaches, however, suggest that the conditional agenda-setting powers accorded to the Parliament by the co-operation procedure are more important than the veto powers ascribed by co-decision.

The Party System in the European Parliament: Collusive or Competitive?

This article looks at the development of the two main features of the party system in the European Parliament (EP): the organization of the party groups, and the nature of competition between these groups. On the organizational side, we examine the foundation of the party groups in the Common Assembly and the evolution of party organization from the appointed to the elected Parliament. On the competition side, we focus on the main axis of competition: the relationship between the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the European Peoples Party (EPP). We develop a set of competition propositions about PES-EPP collusion, and test these arguments in a statistical analysis of PES and EPP roll-call voting since 1979. We conclude that, contrary to what might be expected, the party system in the EP has become more consolidated and more competitive as the powers of the EP have increased.

MOVING BEYOND PROCEDURE An Empirical Analysis of European Parliament Legislative Influence

This article examines the influence of the European Parliament (EP) within the legislative process of the European Union. Although debate over the impact of the cooperation and co-decision I procedures continues, this article argues that, in part, the current theoretical debate is a false one that has caused many of the other important variables that affect EP legislative influence to be ignored. This article briefly revisits the current debate, then proceeds to an analysis of the success of more than 1,000 EP amendments under the cooperation and co-decision procedures. This evidence suggests that numerous other variables, such as internal EP unity and type of amendment made, have a significant impact on EP success, even controlling for procedure. In addition, this comparison points out some empirical differences between the two procedures that have been largely ignored in the theoretical debate but that nonetheless have a significant impact of EP success and merit further study.

The normalization of the European Union

This article reviews the development of European Union (EU) Studies from a comparative perspective to explain why and how scholarship on the EU has changed over time. In particular, this work strives to explain the shift away from a US-centered field of research focused on a few core theoretical concepts to an academic field toward an increasing level of scholarship by European academics on across an extremely broad variety of topics. The core explanation is that as the EU has evolved toward an increasingly ‘state like’ entity scholarship focused on the EU has evolved as well. The evolution has led the field of EU studies to resemble much more closely other state focused fields such as American or French politics, suggesting a normalization of the EU and EU studies.

Looking ‘Up’, ‘Down’ and ‘Sideways’: Understanding EU Institutions in Context

Research on the EU has expanded considerably in recent years. Studies have moved from examining the power of the various EU institutions across time to focusing on the internal activities and organisation of these institutions. The current piece makes a critical assessment of the existing literature on the EU institutions and considers which future steps need to be taken to move the literature forward. It argues that the articles in this volume move the literature further by examining internal institutional changes in the EU bodies in the light of the broader inter-institutional relationships between them. Moreover, it recommends that future research on the EU institutions expand these insights even further by extending the scope of the studies to embed them in a comprehensive understanding of the broader political system of the EU as a whole.

Necessary but not sufficient: understanding the impact of treaty reform on the internal development of the European Parliament

This paper examines the impact of exogenous treaty reform on the internal organization of the European Parliament (EP). After each major reform of the European Unions (EUs) treaties the EP took the opportunity to fully revise its own internal Rules of Procedure (RoP). This work reviews the key revisions of the Single European Act, Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice Treaties relative to the EP to gain an understanding of what types of internal EP reform were required by each new treaty. The actual reforms then undertaken by the EP to its RoP are then analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. This research highlights some broad patterns of Rules reform, but also how these have changed over time. In particular the balance between required Rules reforms and internally and externally oriented strategic reforms is examined.

Toward a New Typology of Vetoes and Overrides

This research develops a typology of vetoes and overrides based on the nature of the coalition that originally passed the legislation. We posit that both legislative and non-legislative objectives inform the strategies of the President and congressional leaders. The implications for measures of presidential and congressional power are considerable. Using veto and override data for the period 1969-98, we show that vote-switching between the passage of legislation and veto overrides is likely to occur only for a specific subset of legislation.

Moving in the other direction? The impact of domestic party system change on Italian MEPs

This paper re-examines some of the assumptions of the Europeanization literature by suggesting that it might be possible for domestic political events to have a direct influence on supranational political organizations. This possibility is addressed through an analysis of the impact that the dramatic political reform of the Italian party system in the 1990s had on the primary home of political party action in the EU, the European Parliament. The goal is to determine the extent to which the transformation of the Italian political party system impacted the party system of the EP, including internal party group cohesion and the political roles and influence of Italian MEPs within the EP. The results are in many ways counterintuitive and suggest that the norms and rules that structure the supranational institutions may be hardier and more resistant to shock than currently assumed.

Leading the Band or Just Playing the Tune? Reassessing the Agenda-Setting Powers of the European Commission

Setting the political agenda is a critical and usually powerful aspect of policy making. However, the ability to set the agenda, without any significant decision-making powers, can undermine this influence, leaving a technical agenda setter without substantive political influence. This research examines the difference between technical and political agenda setting through an analysis of the policy impact of the Commission of the European Union (EU). Using two newly developed databases on Commission policy priorities and all adopted EU legislation, as well as the Decision Making in the European Union (DEU II) dataset, we investigate the ability of the Commission to shape EU legislative outcomes to reflect its policy preferences between 2000 and 2011. Our analyses highlight the comparative weakness of the Commission’s policy influence, despite its formal monopoly of legislative initiation. In this way, we argue for a need to carefully differentiate between technical and political agenda setters when evaluating the policy influence of different political actors.